A Time Team Family Christmas
by Ultrawoman
Summary: One-Shot. Lucy never thought she would find her way to a time when she could enjoy a happy family Christmas again. She was wrong. [Lucy/Flynn plus Team-as-Family fluff; set post-series/no finale movie.]


**A/N: So, this is part of a series I actually started in 2009, writing a happy family Christmas for the characters in various fandoms. I've totally fallen for the whole** **Lucy/Flynn ship so there's plenty of that going on, but the whole gang is here, more or less, because family can mean more than one thing.**

 **Also, please note, I have** **read no spoilers for the finale movie and I won't get to see it until it airs in the UK (sometime in 2019?!) so this is a future based only on Seasons 1 & 2, nothing ****more. If and when you see that movie, folks, please don't put any spoilers in your reviews - thanking you muchly kindly :)**

 _ **Disclaimer: All recognisable characters and any recognisable dialogue from Timeless belongs to Shawn Ryan, Eric Kripke, and other folks who aren't me.**_

A Time Team Family Christmas

Lucy was never the religious type but she always loved Christmas as a child. The family all together, warmth and fun, thoughtful gifts and all the best food. When she grew up and learned that her family life wasn't entirely as it had seemed, that her sister could be deleted from history and her mother was part of an evil organisation, she stopped expecting nice things, including happy Christmases. She figured she was done with family altogether, any kind of traditional family set-up anyway. The team she worked with became her family and they were great, but the woman who had gone from historian to time traveller in a few not-so-easy steps was greedy enough to want more, even when she was sure she couldn't have it. Turned out, she was wrong.

A thunder of feet on the stairs made her smile rather than wince. After all, it was Christmas morning. The sound of people rushing to enjoy the day was nothing but a good thing.

"Besides, the other half of this family has been up and around for a while already, huh, bubba?" said Lucy to the little boy in her arms. "Come on, let's go see what Santa brought." she said, taking her coffee with her as she wandered through to the living room. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Lucy," said Iris, grinning wide from her place at the bottom of the tree. "I can't believe all of these have my name on them," she told her father then, marvelling at the pile of gifts she was pulling from beneath the tree.

"All of them?" Lucy checked, smiling as she put her son down on the carpet by his half-sister. "I hope that's not true."

"Not all exactly," Iris noted, rolling her eyes. "Some are definitely for Gaby."

At the sound of his own name, the little boy crawled over to the pile of gifts and sat down there, clapping his hands and talking the usual nonsense that two-year olds were so fond of.

Lucy laughed, sinking down into the couch cushions. Immediately, her husband's arm went around her shoulders.

"I was hoping that at least a couple of those gifts might be for us too," said Garcia, kissing her temple. "I know I bought you something."

"Something, huh?" said Lucy, glancing up at him. "Big something? Small something?"

"Special something," he said, after considering a moment.

"Hmm, sounds promising." She smiled, snuggling closer.

The sound of tearing paper had their attention then as the kids made short work of getting into their gifts. At two and almost thirteen, both their presents and their reactions were vastly different, but nobody could say that either of them were not thrilled with the pile of gifts they ended up with. Iris was great at helping Gabriel with getting the paper off his toys and showing him how they worked, while also getting giddy about her own make up, books, and clothes.

"Do you think we spoilt them?" asked Garcia in a low voice.

"Probably," Lucy agreed. "But how could we not, after everything? I just want them to be happy, and it's not like any of it was so expensive. They'd be worth every penny anyway."

"Agreed." Her husband nodded, his hand running through her hair as they cuddled up together watching the happy scene. "So, before you get completely distracted," he said to Iris then. "Did you find anything for Lucy or your dear old Papa?"

"Um... there must be something," said Iris, picking up abandoned wrapping paper and moving it aside. "Gaby, do you see more gifts? Help me look," she urged him, though it was clear her brother either didn't understand or was just too busy with his toys to care right now.

"Wow," said Lucy when Iris seemed to be coming up empty. "And I was a good girl all year too," she joked.

"You sure about that?" Garcia teased her.

His wife didn't get a chance to retort as Iris finally found what she was looking for. She came over to the couch with three gifts in her hands that she deposited in their laps.

"That's all there is," she said frowning some. "Shouldn't there be more?" she asked, looking back at the tree.

"Parents make do with less Christmas presents than children." said her father with a smile, "because we already have the greatest gifts in the world that we get to enjoy every day," he said, his hand at his daughter's cheek.

"Dad." She rolled her eyes at the sweet sentiment, truly turning into a teenager before his eyes. "Parents are soft and silly sometimes" she said to her brother, sitting back down on the carpet amongst her gifts. "I mean, I know we're great, but seriously?"

Gabriel just giggled, turning away from his actual gifts and trying to crawl into one of the larger boxes instead. Lucy watched him and shook her head. It never failed to amaze her how kids could be so entertained by cardboard. It made her wonder why they bothered to buy toys sometimes.

"So," said Garcia, getting her attention back, "it looks as if we have been spoilt too," he noted, showing his wife the larger of the three gifts they had in their laps that bore both their names.

Lucy glanced from the tag to Iris who pretended not to be watching her father and step-mother out of the corner of her eye. Since Gaby was far too young to have anything to do with a gift for his parents, it had to all be Iris' doing, though apparently, she wasn't about to admit anything. She was her father's daughter, after all.

Garcia put the present into Lucy's hands, encouraging her to open it, and she carefully did so. From the paper, she pulled out a large rectagular frame, clearly decorated by Iris herself. In it was one large picture of their family, surrounded by smaller portraits of everyone else they held dear.

"Now, that is something," said Garcia, looking at his wife who was smiling and yet very nearly crying too.

"Thank you, Iris," she said, looking down at her. "That's... very special," she told her, swallowing hard.

"It's from both of us," said the girl, shrugging her shoulders and almost blushing somehow. "You're always talking about how important family is, so we wanted you to have something with all of us together, right, Gaby?"

Her brother gabbled and cheered, making everybody laugh.

"Come on now, before we all end up in tears," said Garcia, nudging Lucy. "Open your gift."

"Only if you open yours at the same time," she insisted. "On the count of three?"

"If you wish," he agreed, amused by the idea.

At three, they both opened their gifts, Lucy gasping at the sight of the beautiful diamond-set locket from her husband, engraved with her initials, and Garcia reacted similarly to the exquisite watch from his wife, also engraved when he turned it over to look.

"Ja cu te voljeti za sva vremena," he read aloud, voice almost disappearing altogether by the last word.

"Is it right?" asked Lucy worriedly. "I got it checked, it's supposed to be right."

"'I will love you for all time,'" said Iris, smiling.

Lucy sighed with relief. "That was what I was going for," she said happily.

She barely got a chance to breathe in again before her husband's lips covered hers in a perfect kiss. It might have gone on longer if Gabriel hadn't got himself stuck in the cardboard box and started crying.

"Bad timing, son," said Garcia, letting Lucy go so he could tend to the poor boy.

At the same moment, her phone buzzed in her pocket and Lucy reached for it, smiling when she saw the text.

"Amy wants to wish us all a Merry Christmas," she told her family. "She also wants to know what time dinner will be?" she said, looking to her husband.

"I was thinking of three o'clock?" he suggested from his spot now on the floor amongst the wrapping paper with Gabriel in his lap. "Denise said they're taking the kids to see Michelle's parents this morning, so they couldn't be here for a lunch time meal, but I don't want to leave it too late, or this one is going to be left out," he said, bouncing Gaby on his knee until he laughed.

"Three o'clock is good." Lucy nodded. "I'll text Rufus and Jiya too, make sure they're still coming. I wouldn't blame her if she didn't want to leave the house in her condition."

"It would be a real Christmas gift if the baby showed up today, huh?" said Garcia with a look.

"I guess it would, but does Jiya really want to spend Christmas in all that pain?"

"She wouldn't be the first woman to give birth on such a day," her husband said pointedly. "At least Jiya would be in a hospital, not a stable."

"Excellent point," said Lucy, considering it. "Well, they are coming over. I have affirmatives from all parties. It's going to be one heck of a dinner," she said, worrying her lip.

"Relax" her husband advised. "All you need to do is find enough chairs for everyone to sit on. I have all the cooking planned and if I need help, I'm sure Iris will pitch in, right, sweetheart?"

"Sure," she answered absently, clearly distracted by the history book she had her nose in. "Did you know Christopher Columus' flag ship, the Santa Maria, ran aground and sank on Christmas Day? And that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer didn't exist until Montgomery Ward introduced him on Christmas Day 1939?"

Garcia stood up next to Lucy and leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"You may not be related by blood, but nobody will ever doubt you played your part in our little girl's upbringing," he told her, kissing her cheek.

Lucy smiled a very proud if not watery smile. She couldn't love this family any more if she tried. It was the same with her extended family. Though they were largely unrelated by biology, they certainly cared a great deal for each other, as attested by all the smiling faces around the table at three o'clock in the afternoon.

It was amazing how they could all come together like this and truly act like a family. Maybe it wasn't so strange now as it had been the first time it happened. If anyone had asked Lucy Preston if she could see a day when Garcia Flynn and Wyatt Logan could sit across a table from each other without fear that one would be dead before the end of the meal, she was sure she would've said no. Now they were as much family as anyone present, albeit more like those two relations that never quite saw eye to eye - every family had them, after all.

It didn't even feel strange anymore that Wyatt and Amy were together, and much like her sister, Amy had taken to raising another woman's child as easily as falling off a log. David was a handsome boy of almost four now, he called Amy 'Mama' and nobody bothered to correct him since he was never going to know another mother anyway.

Beside them at the table, Rufus kept a close watch in Jiya, who was due to give birth to their own son any day now, and on the other side of the table was Denise and Michelle with Olivia and Mark between them. With all of them, plus Lucy, Garcia, Iris, and Gabriel, it was quite the squeeze even around the large dining table with both extensions pulled out. A good thing then that they all got along so well these days.

"Lucy?" her husband prompted when she didn't reply the first time. "Are you alright, sweetheart?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she promised, meeting his eyes and smiling. "In fact, I was just thinking how good everything is right now."

"Well, that's dangerous," said Amy with a look. "As soon as somebody says how well everything is going that's usually when it all goes wrong, right?"

"I'd like to think we've all had our share of bad times already," said Wyatt. "I think we're due more good times yet."

"I will drink to that," said Rufus, raising his glass.

"So will I," Jiya agreed, doing the same. "Though I'm not sure it's quite the same, toasting with milk," she said, making a face at the contents of her glass.

"It'll all be worth it in the end, Jiya," Denise promised her, "believe me."

"There is nothing more precious than family," Garcia agreed. "So, how about we drink to both of those things? To good times and family," he said, as everyone picked up their glasses, toasting those words.

Lucy smiled as she sipped her wine, her eyes drifting around the table at all the happy faces. It had been a wonderful Christmas this year, just as she had known it would be.

The End


End file.
